Chef Ryan Trimm was in born in Pittsburgh, PA and spent a majority of his early childhood in Southern California. He moved to Memphis at the age of twelve and stayed here through graduation from Christian Brothers High School in 1998. Ryan went on to study English and Business at Ole Miss. During college he discovered his love for cooking. He worked in his first fine dining restaurant the summer after his freshman year. Ryan worked at the Carlton Restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA. He enjoyed the summer so much that he started working for a new restaurant in Oxford, 208 South Lamar. Upon graduation Ryan moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he attended Johnson and Wales University and more importantly found a job working under Chef Frank Lee at Slightly North of Broad. He considers his years spent at S.N.O.B. the most influential in his career, crediting Lee’s direction as the basis for his broad kitchen skills and development of his palate.
Ryan moved back to Memphis in 2005 and started working at the Grove Grill for Chef Jeffrey Dunham. He spent over four years there as the Chef de Cuisine, until he decided to open Sweet Grass in April 2010. Sweet Grass is a neighborhood bistro that concentrates on low country cuisine. The following year they opened Sweet Grass Next Door, a casual sports restaurant and bar. Chef and his kitchen staff focus on traditional southern ingredients and doing their best to make everything from scratch in house. Whole animal butchery, fresh local vegetables and fruits, well sourced seafood and aromatic stocks are still the kitchens greatest source of inspiration each night.
In the six years that it has been open, Sweet Grass has won such accolades as Best New Restaurant and Best Bar in multiple Memphis publications as well as USA Today, Delta Sky Miles, New York Times and National Geographic Travel magazines. In addition, Ryan was nominated for Food and Wine’s Peoples’ Best New Chef 2011. Ryan and his staff have been invited to cook at the James Beard House, Boston’s Revelry for Charity, Outstanding in the Field, Cochon 555, Cochon Heritage BBQ and several other culinary events.
